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When Wasps Are Given Colored Paper, They Build Rainbow Nests

Wasps. Few people like them. Mainly because they’re not very friendly. But not all wasps are aggressive. Some of them are gentle. Some are even downright hippies. Don’t believe me? Then take a look at these psychedelic nests to see just what I mean.

They’re the product of an experiment conducted by Mattia Menchetti, a biology student at the University of Florence. He realised that by giving a captive colony of European paper wasps different colored paper over time, the insects would eventually construct their own kaleidoscopic houses. And as you can see, the result is pretty remarkable, if not slightly reminiscent of a bad trip.

While this experiment was deliberate, unintentional human interference with the insect world has also produced some equally surprising results. In 2012 for example, beekeepers in France were amazed to discover that their bees had created green and blue honey. The reason? The unsuspecting insects were using sugar collected from the shells of M&Ms at a nearby waste-processing plant.